After making an impressive political comeback by winning reelection in 1948, Harry Truman was going through a second wave of unpopularity over his handling of the Korean War, and "losing" China to Communists.

Republicans, including General Dwight Eisenhower, attacked Truman's domestic policies as "modeled on the Socialist governments of Europe." [1]

A record Forty-one million ballots were cast in the election. It was clear that Democratic dominance in Congress was weakening. The Democrats' majority margin slipped from eighty-eight to thirty-six seats in the House, and two seats in the Senate.